UPDATE 1-Ford leads record Canadian auto sales; GM sales slide

TORONTO Oct 1 (Reuters) - Automakers sold a record number
of cars in Canada last month and pushed total vehicle sales
year-to-date to a new record, according to industry data
released on Tuesday, with Ford Motor Co's Canadian unit
outselling all its competitors.

September auto sales beat the previous record by a sizable
margin, climbing 4.2 percent to 149,092, even as several major
automakers underperformed the industry. Total sales so far this
year climbed 3.5 percent to 1,350,756, also a record.

"With any sort of decent market performance during the last
three months total sales in Canada should beat the all-time
record recorded in 2002 of 1.703 million units," wrote
independent auto industry expert Dennis DesRosiers, of
DesRosiers Automotive Consultants.

"We are currently tracking at 30K units above this level."

Ford Canada, which leads in industry sales so far this year
with a 2.7 percent rise to 225,112, said sales surged 10 percent
last month to 25,956. This was the second best September on
record for the maker of the Ford Focus.